I have fond memories of Buffalo. I left Buffalo 25 years ago to SoCal. Now we live in Dallas. For 25 years we make the trip back each year to catch up with family and friends. It is a comfortable place to live and I am encouraged to see signs of progress. I am buying a house south of Hamburg on Lake Erie as a summer home to enjoy the local culture and beat the heat

WNY gov't commonly give the latest fad in business tax breaks for 10 years or so to relocate. After which, the business creates no permanent local jobs and ups to a new tax free location. Local politicians see this as reason to give no tax breaks at all, when in reality they should apply tax breaks to the overtaxed small businesses who have remained over the decades rather than to the latest fad that pushes out local business and ups their chance of reelection.

Back in the 90s, comedian George Carlin used to say that committing suicide in Buffalo is redundant. That was then, this is now. The new census data came out recently showed that for the first time in 100 years, cities in the US are again growing faster than their surrounding suburbs. Although most of the growth data was for large urban centers like NYC, SF, Austin or Portland(OR), it only makes sense that the effect trickles down to mid-size cities such as Buffalo, which provides the urban convenience but at a lower cost.

Young adults are now shunning the suburb for cities in large numbers primarily due to economic reasons. Many are unemployed or underemployed with menial clerical/service jobs that are much more abundant in cities than suburbs. Many are also shunning the long commute lifestyle common among their parents. Another study also shows that due to the economy, fewer people are moving long distances or across state lines. Most young college grads now opt to stay put, either near their college town or home town.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2165842/Young-Americans-shunning...

It is definitely a good time to revive a city such as Buffalo, which still has a cost advantage over large cities. However to do so requires not just financial resources, but also vision and strategy, i.e. smart planning. The $1B pledged should be wisely used to expand infrastructure like in Denver, i.e. build a vibrant downtown "restaurant row" with wide sidewalks for alfresco dining in the summer, smart delis and specialty stores, water parks with fountains, green parks, lots of sidewalk, bike lanes everywhere, and a good public transport system of light rails or subway. In a city with cold winters like Buffalo, covered walkways throughout the city, either above or below ground, difinitely helps. Private builders could be invited in to build smart office buildings for rent at a low cost. These could be used to draw in startups as well as professionals working as independent consultants, which is a growing trend due to all the layoffs.

With nearby Niagra Falls as an attraction, there's a lot Buffalo can do to make a comeback. I hope it seizes the opportunity.

NYC has fought industrial-to-residential conversions in Manhattan and Brooklyn because the loft buildings there were actually still being used by what were in many cases highly profitable small manufacturers--particularly in the fashion and musical equipment industries. The difficulty of goods movement within NYC means that these clients can't just find new sources out in the suburbs.

Chicago has been a different story: manufacturing there has always been on a national scale, and the city doesn't have a lot of hyper-specialized sectors. Losing some lofts that have been vacant for 50+ years anyway isn't going to hurt anyone, especially considering how much less challenging its geography is for goods movement.

A city like Buffalo isn't going to lose much from encouraging adaptive reuse of industrial properties. It has zero congestion, and there aren't many specialized firms in its downtown that need to have suppliers within a 5-minute drive.

Until you learn how to spell and put together a complete sentence, you should refrain from commenting on anything at all. Rants and raves that lack punctuation and correct spelling are mind-numbing, and render the your post completely incomprehensible.
Please pick up a grammar book or go back to high school.
Thank you.

Your references to past major decisions aren't wholly inaccurate but times have changed, and great decisions have been and are being made now. The important thing is that past mistakes are something to be learned from and the key word here is 'past.'

Moving ahead, whether it's the incredibly exciting accomplishments (finally) and ongoing development as well as future plans for the city's jewel of a waterfront, or the influx of thousands of residents to the urban core (to newly developed loft style apartments and condos in lovely, historic buildings, as well as to affordable, beautiful, historic housing stock that's built to last), great things are happening and it is an exciting time to be a part of a great city's renaissance.

While those who "used to live here" are certainly welcome to comment,they should not make the mistake of assuming that the city they left "X" years ago is somehow a static version of (fill in the year). It is constantly changing in an organic way. As a resident who is paying attention,I can assure you it is change for the good.

While this may not apply to directly, almost anyone who makes a decision to make a personal or professional move will look for ways to affirm their decision by finding something wrong with the place they left. It is human nature to assure oneself, but doesn't mean that there is anything "wrong" with their former city.

Your last sentence is certainly a generalization, and not wholly true of course, but nevertheless, could also be said of many cities, Boston, in particular.

IIRC Wegmans is non-union. They've kept their workers from organizing by having the best pay and benefits in the industry, but organized labor in greater NYC--which is insanely aggressive and still walking tall after beating back Wal-Mart for years--isn't going to be satisfied with that. They could try what Costco does and have a mix of union and non-union stores, but they're much too small a company to deal with the administrative hassles that entails.

Plus, logistics in greater NYC is a nightmare. Long Island alone would require its own distribution center due to its inaccessibility from the existing DCs Upstate.

look at our politicians same faces the last 10 years ,ALL THERE PROMISES,,,,,BROKIN ,BUT THEY SMILE CAUSE THEY DO LIVE THE GOOD LIFE PENSION,HEALTH INSURANCE MOST FOR LIFE,DENTAL ECT ECT AND WE STILL PUT THEM BACK IN OFFICE SHAME ON US

I am from across the pond and I am wondering why cities like Buffalo and Rochester are not benefiting from nearby Niagara Falls: cheap hydro-electricity.

Cheap hydro-electricity is not only great for all kinds of industrial activities, but is also great for data centers. Attracting more data centers to western New York could boost the IT sector in the region.

Until you learn how to spell and put together a complete sentence, you should refrain from commenting on anything at all. Rants and raves that lack punctuation and correct spelling are mind-numbing, and render the your post completely incomprehensible.
Please pick up a grammar book or go back to high school.
Thank you.

Until you learn how to spell and put together a complete sentence, you should refrain from commenting on anything at all. Rants and raves that lack punctuation and correct spelling are mind-numbing, and render the your post completely incomprehensible.
Please pick up a grammar book or go back to high school.
Thank you.

I believe we do get a significant portion of electricity from Niagara Falls. I am not aware of data centers here, but we also have very cold winters, which would save on air conditioning costs. That being said, data centers don't create nearly as many jobs as would be needed.